It's been more than a year since the flag was lowered for the last time outside VFW Post 483 on Quincy Street in Nashua. But upkeep on the nearly century-old building was breaking the organization's bank, especially after sinking $100,000 into a new sprinkler system in 2012 to comply with the city's building code.

So last April, rather than dig themselves into a bigger financial hole, the VFW sold the building and handed over the keys to the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Homeless Shelter, which was operating across town out of a much smaller building.